The LLVM Compiler System is being used for allsortsofinterestingthings these days. It basically provides an extremely modular and easy to use set of open source (BSD-licensed) compiler libraries that can be used to build various applications from. Despite this, many people don't really understand it, and are scared away by the breadth of the project or by compilers in general. The Kaleidoscope tutorial starts out from scratch and slowly builds up a simple language to show how LLVM can help out with this. We end up with a JIT compiler for a fairly interesting little language with less than 700 lines of code. Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg, once you start with LLVM, there are all sorts of things you can do.

I modded you up for the general wisdom contained in your retort. However, notice that I'm criticising this horrid trend of nowadays where people believe that reading whatever is written in Wikipedia is enough to grasp a concept, any concept, and base their work on whatever shallow article comes up on WP.

Bottom line is: buy a book. Read a book. If for no other reason than being healthier for your eyes and blood flow. Some WP articles might be very thorough, but they're no substitute to the proper literature on any non-trivial subject.

(You'd never attempt to fix a modern car engine after reading Wikipedia articles on 4-stroke engines, would you?)